Posts tagged ‘traktor’

One of those games we got a chance to see for ourselves. A great, open game played at an incredible pace. Boris Mikhaylov’s troops from Novokuznetsk were not afraid to get into a run and gun contest with the one of the KHL’s powerhouses, Ak Bars Kazan. It was also our first chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, the youngest player in the KHL. He’s #91 (sporting a full face shield) on the Metallurg squad.

This week’s must see game features currently the top 2 teams in the KHL. These are also two hottest teams in the league coming into the game on long winning streaks. Atlant won 6 straight while Avangard is on a 7-game winning streak (which coincidentally or not started right after they fired their coach… who said Jaromir Jagr can’t be a player coach?). The game also features the current points leader in the entire league, Sergei Mozyakin of Atlant and the current top goal scorer, Jaromir Jagr (10). New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov is coming into the match on his own streak having scored goals in 5 straight games and having scored points in 7 straight. If all of this weren’t enough the game also features two former NHL goalies, John Graham of Ak Bars and Ray Emery of Atlant. Both are playing very well so far sporting a .930 save percentage. We just had to check this one out for ourselves and it didn’t disappoint.

Magnitka’s first game after the Victoria Cup game vs. the New York Rangers turned into quite an ill tempered affair. Fans of hockey fisticuffs might want to check this one out. Who says Russians don’t fight?

Another chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, this time in a game vs. last season’s Russian Superliga champs, Salavat. For Salavat this is the last KHL game before they make their debut in the brand new European Champions League.

For our first RSL Game of the Week we’ve chosen a recent brawl filled game between Ak Bars Kazan and Traktor Chelyabinsk instead of a game from this past week. The brawl was all over Youtube, blogosphere and even made its way onto ESPN SportCenter, so we think there would be quite a few hockey fans who would like to check out the entire game, which was a quiet exciting affair even when the teams were playing actual hockey rather than kicking the crap out of each other.

Traktor Chelyabinsk is captained by former NHL veteran #13 Andrei Nikolishin and coached by the only Russian enforcer to ever lace them up in the NHL, Andrei Nazarov.

Ak Bars Kazan, a perennial powerhouse in the modern era of Russian hockey, is coming off winning the IIHF Continental Cup. The team features #35 Finnish goalie Mika Noronen, who spent most of his time in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres; #2 Canadian minor leaguer Raymond Giroux; a number of young NHL prospects #5 Ilya Nikulin (Atlanta Thrashers), #59 Vyacheslav Buravchikov (Buffalo Sabres) who captained Russia in the recent World Junior Championships and #74 tough hitting defenseman Alexei Yemelin (Montreal Canadiens). Also playing for Ak Bars in this game are Montreal veteran #14 Oleg Petrov, RSL stars #25 Danis Zaripov and #42 Sergei Zonovyev as well as former Pittsburgh Penguin #95 Alexei Morozov.

You can watch the game in the streaming player or download the file to your computer by clicking the “Open Containing Folder” link below the player, right clicking the file and selecting the “download” option.We recommend the free VLC media player for playing it.